The Cultural Performance of Portland's Strip Club
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Portland State University PDXScholar Geography Masters Research Papers Geography 2012 Myths and Measures: The Cultural Performance of Portland’s Strip Club Identity Wayne Coffey Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_masterpapers Part of the Geographic Information Sciences Commons, and the Human Geography Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Coffey, Wayne, "Myths and Measures: The Cultural Performance of Portland’s Strip Club Identity" (2012). Geography Masters Research Papers. 14. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_masterpapers/14 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geography Masters Research Papers by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ii Abstract Identities of place develop through a multitude of perceptions. Place myths guide much of this perception. Portland, Oregon’s identity has evolved in particular around a much quoted but unchallenged statistic regarding the volume of nude dancing venues. This paper focuses on the literature specific to both nude dance venues and place identity; Portland’s legal history that contributed to this phenomenon; and some of the cultural and spatial variables pertinent to this issue. Two initiatives, aimed at restructuring the state constitution specifically to deal with nude dance venues and other adult entertainment, are analyzed. iii Myths and Measures: The Cultural Performance of Portland’s Strip Club Identity By Wayne Coffey A research paper submitted for the fulfillment of the degree requirement of Master of Science In Geography Portland State University 2012 iv Table of Contents Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….. ii Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 1 Literature Review…………………………………………………………………... 9 Historic Background……………………………………………………………...... 18 Origins of Burlesque and Striptease…………………………………………... 18 Oregon’s Constitution and Portland Strip Clubs………………………………. 22 Oregon’s “Anti-Porn” Ballot Measures and the Liquor Control Commission…… 25 The Liquor Control Commission and Oregon Courts Revisited………………… 30 Controversy Persists………………………………………………………… 32 General Discussion……………………………………………………………........ 34 Exotic Dance in the Context of the Strip Club Setting………………………….. 35 Relational Space as Social and Spatial Practice………………………………. 37 Place Identity and Portland’s Strip Club Culture……………………………… 41 Conclusion……………………………………………………………..................... 55 Bibliography…………………………………………………………….................. 57 Appendices A – Tables………………………………………………….......................... 66 B – Figures…………………………………………………......................... 77 C – Methodologies Statements ………………………………………......... 84 D – Ballot Measure Statements…………………………………………….. 86 1 Myths and Measures: The Cultural Performance of Portland’s Strip Club Identity Introduction Places emerge through recognition. The recognition can be real or imagined and by persons residing within or outside the identified space. Recognition also results from some distinguishable characteristic(s). The act of recognizing and establishing the identity of a place is a long tenured ritual from the primal ceremonies of walking village boundaries to the contemporary fetish with regional boosterism (Tuan, 1977). Portland, Oregon boasts many promotional statistics from library book circulation to coffee consumption. It also has the dubious, yet unofficial, distinction of having the most strip clubs (nude dancing establishments) per capita of any U.S. city. The continued citation of this factoid in media and public discourse rarely includes discussion of the merit of the source’s origin, that is, it would appear to be a baseless claim. The expression of a place’s identity seems ever changing and the forces that shape that expression can be hard to define. For the Portland region, attitudes about the status as a strip club capital can be summarized into three general groups. The first appear as a vocal, though nebulous, population that embraces diversity, rebelliousness, and transgression as a defining element of local culture. The second, a distinct but fragmented voice of citizen, social welfare and business groups, reject strip clubs as a legitimate part of the cultural tapestry. The third, an ambivalent majority, appear to accept the current condition as status quo. Myths of a place derive from facts mediated through belief and power. Place identity is an arena in which contested ideas and values 2 struggle over what (or whom) determines the means of representation. These ideas can coexist in a casual tolerance but at times conflicts aggravate this peace. This persistent dialogue has a defining impact on the mythologized geography of Portland. Adult entertainment, from internet pornography to live exotic dancing, poses problems for communities. Whether real or imagined, these problems may be social – some prostitution and sexual assault can be related to adult entertainment – but are largely cultural in that they involve conflicts over a community’s identity. This problem can be seen in both terms of a moral code (you can’t do that) and a spatial code (you can’t do that here). Sexually explicit material and performances are afforded some protection by the first amendment of the U.S. constitution. In Oregon, they are afforded much greater protection. The emphasis here is on the spatial code – the question of where adult entertainment occurs – which shifts considerably depending on the legislative environment of each state or city. However, moral codes are applied spatially, by determining what is in place or out of place (Cresswell; 1996, 2005). While the internet can not usually be targeted as a source of one community’s problems in particular, conspicuous commercial venues that deal sexually explicit material are targeted in the landscape typically as blight and rarely accepted as part of the larger commercial tapestry of local businesses. Venues supporting exotic dancing as public spectacle (generally referred to as strip clubs and for the remainder of the paper will be referred to as such) are distinct from other entertainment venues. This distinction and the disproportionate amount of attention strip clubs receive compared to other adult venues is one element of how Portland performs identity. That identity extends from 3 myths about how communities want to be perceived. As the presence of strip clubs becomes commonplace in the landscape they come to symbolize resistance to a larger struggle against modernity (Harvey, 1990; Massey, 1994). Places, whether as political or cultural entities (neighborhoods, cities, regions), define themselves in part through the behaviors and values of their populace. These behaviors and values are expressed sometimes as acts of civic organization such as historic preservation (buildings, trees) or monumental artifice (stadiums, parks) but also acts of consumption like food and entertainment. While strip clubs have their own internal conflicts, local tabloid publications in Portland and websites revel in the representations of strip clubs as conventional entertainment for normal consumption that also stand out as deviant within the context of national identity. This deviance may represent a deep chauvinistic undercurrent or a preponderance of excessive “perversion” but within the locus of cultural transgression in Portland society, the mythical status as “strip club capital” signifies a greater reconciliation with the complex resistances present in any city (Harvey, 1990). The status as “strip club capital” derives first from reports by police in the early 1990s (Zimmerman, 1993) and reinforced by internet surveys by taken across the country, undertaken mostly by alternative weekly publications and Measured against the local population counts (Moore, 2005). The result is the number strip clubs per capita, which Portland has consistently had the most of since the poll was initiated. The Measure is arbitrary. Methods for how to accurately qualify what constitutes a strip club (from a peep show or a bar with topless wait staff for example) and to distinguish the degree of 4 activity (number of dancers and extremity of acts) are absent while the use of city populations creates great spatial anomalies with regards to how these clubs interact with the surrounding urban/rural environment. Local booster organizations do not tout such measures as part of their promotional campaigns but the continued reporting of the per capita statistic by most media outlets has made the issue a pervasive one in the cultural dialogue. The idea of strip clubs as pervasive perhaps establishes another celebratory dimension to the character of the city as a laboratory for expressing resistance. It also provides a platform for more diverse political discourse, that is, what does the success of so many clubs and the defeat of obscenity measures (ballot initiatives) say about the populace? At one perspective, a pervasive strip club culture demonstrates how a state with a rigid land-use system can simultaneously juxtapose the subtlety of its unique constitutional free expression clause. However, this pervasiveness also exposes the ever- present employment disparities between men and women and a recognizable imbalance in sexual roles (male strippers are a stark minority). Or perhaps instead of demonstrating a flexible, competent and pro-active government it displays the folly of an impotent